


Five Drabble Bingos

by callmeonetrack



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bingo, Drabble Sequence, F/M, Future Fic, POV Alternating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2017-01-18
Packaged: 2018-09-18 12:07:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9384305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callmeonetrack/pseuds/callmeonetrack
Summary: A quintet of 5-drabble story sets





	1. Chapter 1

# Life on Earth

 **Learning from the Past** , Academy, PG

On the verdant planet, Kara can’t shake her déjà vu. It’s not for the physical place. The tomb on Kobol was ages ago and the ghost memories from her missing time—six hours? two months?— have faded. 

Instead, it reminds her of New Caprica. Cylons and humans mingle. A tent city is erected. Soon they talk of opening a school. 

When Lee suggests she teach, Kara scoffs at him. Zak and Kat and all the pilots she taught fill her head. She remembers Laura too. 

Later, when the academy opens, Kara is the first one there. They won’t be forgotten. 

***

 **Planned Parenthood,** Carolanne, PG-13

The pregnancy was not a surprise. 

They’d asked Cottle first, unsure it could even happen considering Kara’s…past. He’d run the tests, given them the go-ahead, even suggested fertility-enhancing herbs. 

“I think the kids at school are making you go soft, Starbuck,” Lee had teased on the way home, impossibly happy. 

Kara’d just laughed and winked. “We’ll see who’s going soft when we get home, Apollo.” 

He swears that’s the night they conceived her. 

When they found out, they both cried. 

They still have doubts sometimes. He thinks of his mother and hers, vows they’ll do better.

It won’t be hard. 

***

 **First Time,** Frak space, NC-17

It’s their first time since the baby came. Before actually, since Kara had been on bedrest the last three months of her pregnancy. (Lee still had the scars to prove it.) 

Now he can’t stop staring and touching, his hands mapping her body like undiscovered territory. In wonder, Lee’s palms smooth the rounder swell of her hips, fingers cradle breasts heavy with milk, thumbs trace the pale tracks on her abdomen. 

He lingers until Kara urges him on. “Gods, Lee, enough with the foreplay!” she hisses. 

He thrusts inside on command, in full agreement. They’ve waited long enough for this. 

***

 **War is Easier** , Sims, PG 

They’ve been pacing all night, trying to quiet their teething toddler’s screams. It’s been weeks like this. Lee hasn’t felt this tired since the early days of the war. 

Their daughter is inconsolable, tears coursing down her chubby cheeks, and Lee wants to cry too. He sings her every military cadence he can remember. Kara plays peek-a-boo till her arms are sore. Nothing works. 

Strangely, it reminds him of the Academy, those early days when he’d clamber into the sims, bursting to try new ways to blow raiders out of the sky. 

He wishes there’d been a sim for parenting. 

***

 **Winning,** Pyramid, PG

At ten years old, Thea Thrace-Adama is the spitting image of her mother, but exactly like her father in temperament. 

Thea’s curled up with a book from her grandfather’s library, when Kara coaxes the reluctant girl onto the pyramid court. Excitedly, she teaches her daughter how to shoot and score.

But it’s hopeless, Thea loses every game, even with Kara holding back. Hiding her disappointment, she hugs her girl, sends her back to her beloved books. 

Lee knows her too well. He pulls her close, hands drifting to Kara’s bulging stomach. 

“It’s okay,” he whispers. “I think we’ve already won.”


	2. Unexpected Pleasures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lee and Kara meet at boot camp.

**  
A Helping Hand, reserves (PG)**

If Lee hadn’t already detested the military with a passion, this teamwork exercise would’ve done it. Scaling the huge wall was impossible without help, but his squadmates hated him. He’d heard them dogging him, the daddy’s boy with the callsign of a god.

Three months till solstice break; nine more playing wind-up soldier then he was done with the Reserves. Free to live his own life finally.

Taking a running jump, he hauled himself halfway up before getting stuck, tired muscles protesting. Then a hand grasped his forearm, pulling him over the ledge. Golden-green eyes sparkled at him. Lee grinned.

 

**Change of Plans, solstice break (PG)**

Kara knew everybody and everybody knew Kara. She bulldozed through social circles, pulling Lee in her wake to the mess, pick-up pyramid, triad tournaments. They were a package deal.

The night before break, she sat on his rack, watching as he carefully folded clothes into his duffel.

“When’s your shuttle, Kara?”

“Not going home.”

“You’re staying here? Gods, why?”

Kara shrugged, fingers twitching on the bed, and suddenly Lee remembered a story she’d slurred into his ear one drunken night. About her mom and rubber bugs.

His duffel was emptied twice as quickly and far less carefully with Kara helping.

 

**Time’s Up, almost kiss (PG)**

Lee’s countdown dwindled from months to days then hours. Just a few were left when Kara grabbed a bottle of ambrosia and his hand, tugging him away from the party, up to the roof.

Kara glowed in the moonlight as she turned, slid closer, her body swaying into his. Her breath ghosted across his lips and   
Lee froze, wondering. Hoping. Waiting. The moment stretched... then passed as Kara shifted, threw her arms around his neck.

“I’ll miss you,” she whispered.

He squeezed her tight, swallowing hard, unsure if it was sadness or disappointment thickening his throat. “I’ll miss you too.”

 

**Reunion, uniform (PG)**

Readjusting to civilian life was harder than Lee expected. He missed flying, missed the base routines. More than that, though, he missed Kara. He still heard her voice in his head sometimes.

Lee thought his eyes were playing tricks on him too when he caught a glimpse of bright blonde hair and fleet uniform at his law school graduation. “Kara?”

“Didn’t think I’d miss seeing you get your fancy diploma, Apollo, did ya?”

Lee couldn’t speak, his throat thick with emotion again. So he pulled Kara close, and did what he should have two years ago, his mouth covering hers.

 

**Change of Plans Redux, Battlestar Adriatica (NC-17)**

Lee had thought he’d known almost everything about his best friend.

But he hadn’t known this – this softness of her skin under his palms as he parted her thighs, this sweet-salty taste of her on his tongue, this hushed whimper when he slid inside her.

After, tangled together in bed, Kara surprised him again. “My tour on Adriatica’s done next week,” she said softly, twining their fingers together. “I could switch to Pegasus-” Nervous eyes flitted to his, “or be an instructor here at HQ.” 

Joy lit up his heart and he kissed her. 

It was good to be wrong.  



	3. Seeing is Believing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five people realize the truth of Kara and Lee on one groundbreaking night.

**Ships in the Night (Baltar, PG)**

Gaius stifled a yawn as Felix yammered on about the groundbreaking ceremony. He had a doctorate in artificial intelligence, for goodness sake. He could surely handle shoveling some dirt. 

Bored, his gaze strayed to the foursome nearby. Starbuck and that ballplayer, Apollo and Dualla. His eyes gravitated to Kara, catching how her smile widened as she looked from her date to the Major. His gut twisted with old shame. 

For just a moment, Gaius considered pulling the pyramid jock aside, warning him. But he dismissed it as Starbuck and her entourage sailed past him, oblivious like ships in the night.

 

**You wanna dance? (Dee, PG)**

Dee held the secret close, giddy with excitement, as they whirled around the dance floor. Breathless she pulled over and watched Apollo dance with Starbuck. Lee’s smile faded, his grip white-knuckled on her arm, eyes locked intently with Kara’s.

“So I talked to the commander today,” she said when the dance ended, even as his eyes drifted back to _her._

“Oh? What about?” 

“Transferring to the Pegasus with you,” Dee said, her tone sharp. They’d just talked about it this morning.

That got his attention. Dee swallowed as his face turned wary, guarded. “Oh. And?”

“He said no,” she lied. 

 

**Cloud Nine (Tigh, PG)**

It was quiet now, most revelers paired off or passed out. Saul stroked Ellen’s hair as she slept. This was bliss, he thought. _Cloud frakking nine_. No cylons, no action stations. 

Then a faint familiar voice pierced the silence.  _“Lee Adama loves Kara Thrace!”_

Saul’s eyebrows rose and he started chuckling. He sobered quick enough, eyeing Anders face down in the dirt, and wondering if Bill had heard the plaintive cry. Those poor bastards. 

Silence resumed. Saul began to consider that Apollo might just be the poorest bastard of all, but then he heard it:

_“Kara Thrace loves Lee Adama!”_

 

**Fully Stimulated (Sam, PG)**

When he woke up, Sam’s nerve endings tingled, his system fully stimulated, like he hadn’t slept at all. He wondered where Kara had slept, remembered seeing her last on the dance floor with Major Adama. 

He headed in that direction, impatient to see her. This was it, the first day of the rest of their lives. Kara would miss the fleet, no doubt, but he wouldn’t. Sam had missed the sun’s warmth.

Then he saw them. Her and the major, hands intertwined, eyes locked on each other. 

Anger and hurt bloomed quickly. Maybe Kara wouldn’t be missing it after all. 

 

**You’re the CAG (Bill, PG)**

“Sir, I have a request,” Kara said slowly, like she knew he’d say no.

Bill hated to do it. This planet was tempting with its sunlight and its pleasures, but the fleet needed them.

“I’m sorry, Captain. I can’t let you go.” Bill took his glasses off, swiping them on his shirt. “You're the CAG, and it‘s important we maintain—“

“Sir,” Kara interjected and her tone lifted his head. Bill slipped the glasses on, finally noticing the way Starbuck was gripping his son’s hand, the look in Lee’s eyes. 

His heart lurched. 

“Permission to transfer to Pegasus, Sir?” 

“Permission…granted.”


	4. A Fresh Start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A modern AU - what if Kara and Lee had slept together that first night they met and Kara got pregnant?

**Boxing gloves**

Every Sunday morning Lee meets his brother at the gym. It’s a standing tradition whenever he’s home. They’ve never missed it.

He meets Kara on a Saturday night, falls for her within minutes, sleeps with her after his brother passes out. 

Six hours later, despite the hangover and crippling guilt, he’s there early, gloves on already when Zak arrives. 

His brother is beaming and Lee breathes. Kara didn’t tell him.   
He lets Zak knock him out anyway. 

Lee’s face wears his brother’s bruises for a month, but the hardest blow he never sees coming: 

_“I asked Kara to marry me.”_

 

**Kacey**

She says no. Kara never wanted to marry and she and Zak have always been more off than on. Then there was Lee, and now, this... She doesn’t know what to do, but she knows she can’t marry his brother. 

Zak keeps asking, voice quavering even as he insists it’s the right thing to do, and that Kara’s just scared. He’s not wrong about that.

So she waits, maintains a holding pattern while she decides—to call Lee, to tell Zak the truth, to move one way or the other. 

Until the day the doctor says: “Congratulations. It’s a girl.” 

 

**Dance space**

Kara runs. It’s what she does best, isn’t it?

She quits the gallery, climbs in her truck, and drives. Ends up at a dive in the ass-end of nowhere. 

Kara ignores the bartender’s dirty look when she orders water and stares out at the couples on the dance floor. They’re young, happy. They have options. Kara doesn’t. She waited too long, brain busy with all the wrong problems. Fucking figures.

“Kara?” 

She turns, pulse quickening. “Lee….” She expected Zak. “What are you doing here?”

His face twists in pain, and she thinks:  _he knows._

But instead he says, “It’s Zak.” 

 

**Because of Zak?**

The funeral is... a funeral. No one knows about the baby, but they all treat her like Zak’s widow anyway. His father grips Kara’s hand too tightly, his mother sobs on her shoulder. Lee is…  _Lee_. He tries to pull her aside but Kara avoids him.

Finally she slips away, climbs in her truck. There’s shouting behind her, a door slamming, then Lee climbs in too, chest heaving.

Kara freezes. 

“My father. He’s so frakking--,” he stops and breathes. “We had a difference of opinion.” 

“Over Zak?”

He meets her eyes, shakes his head, lays his hand on her stomach. 

 

**Leoben**

Kara’s always been crap at relationships and Lee’s not much better. He’s a control freak, she’s a loose canon, and they’re both stubborn. But they can’t seem to quit each other.

Karl calls from Vienna; a friend needs help at her gallery in a little town on the Mur River called Leoben. It’s a fresh start. Kara runs. 

But this time she’s not running alone. 

She still won’t get married, but when the baby comes, Kara writes “Kacey Adama” on the certificate without thinking twice. Lee kisses her, hugs them close.

“Love you,” he whispers.

"Me too."

They're family now.


	5. Chances Are

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fleet repopulation match program offers pilots a chance to get it right.

The Quorum’s decision is controversial, but mostly accepted. 

_Mostly._

“Those frakking bastards,” Kara swears, banging her locker closed.

Lee winces; he should’ve anticipated this. “Starbuck-“

“Don’t, Lee! You know this is bullshit. I can do a hell of a lot more for the fleet in my viper than I can on my back for some mouth-breather!”

His first thought is:  _Not necessarily from what I’ve heard_ . He wisely keeps it to himself. “The repopulation program is a logical solution-”

“Oh really? So you’re just frakking fine with this?” 

He thinks of the match notification slip in his pocket and smiles.

*******

When Lee gets off CAP the next afternoon, Starbuck’s gone missing. He’s sure she’s gotten her slip. 

He goes searching, finds her at the memorial wall. 

“So…” he starts.

“How long have you known?”

“Just since yesterday.” 

She nods, stares ahead. He follows her gaze to the wall. The picture from her locker, ripped so only Zak shows, is pinned there. Lee swallows hard.

“Kara, there are ways to -” He stops. “We don’t have to -” Lee inhales. “If you don’t want me-” He can't finish.

She looks at him finally, sad eyes shining. “That’s never been our problem.”

*******

“What’s up with you and the CAG?” Boomer asks.

“What? Nothing! Not a frakking thing.” The words come fast and sharp, and she flushes. 

“Right. That’s why you’ve been a total headcase all week and he keeps giving you puppy eyes.”

Kara takes a breath. She has to tell someone. Her fingers shake as she pulls the slip out of her pocket. Boomer’s eyes widen. “Oh.” 

Kara’s fist curls, crumpling it. What the hell is she gonna do?

“You’re lucky, you know.” 

“Lucky?”

“Sure,” Boomer says quietly. “How many people you think got matched to someone who already loves them?”

 

*******

Boomer’s words get stuck in her head. Kara wants to believe it’s just Sharon yanking her chain, but deep down…she’s always known, hasn’t she?

“Okay.” she tells his back later.

Lee turns. “Okay?”

“Let’s do our patriotic duty or whatever.” She shrugs, pressing her lips to his quickly.

Lee’s mouth is warm and his lips part under hers, but then he pulls away. “Kara, stop.”

She recoils. “You don’t want-”

“No, I do!” Lee pulls her closer. “But… not here. Not like this.”

“What? You want roses and candles?”

He kisses her softly, whispers, “I want to do it right.”

*******

Six hours and change later, she finds a note and a lumpy pillowcase on her rack. 

_“Meet me at 2100, Room 307, Causeway D. Wear this. Please.”_

Kara pulls out a pile of blue silk and her eyebrows raise. 

Still, at 2100 she’s tugging nervously on the dress as the hatch opens. 

There’s no roses or candles. But there’s a real bed in these quarters and Lee’s wearing a suit. 

“What is all this?” 

He pulls her inside and glides a finger down her neck, tugging the scarf aside to kiss her throat. She shivers. 

“This is our chance, Kara.”


End file.
